RSM-UOTTAWA CONDEMNS ISRAEL’S RENEWED ASSAULT ON PALESTINE

University of Ottawa Revolutionary Student Movement in association with OPIRG denounces the unceasing attack on the people of Gaza perpetrated by the State of Israel that to this hour has resulted in more than a thousand Palestinians killed, thousands wounded, overwhelming majority of them civilians – children, women, the elderly and men not affiliated with any armed group.

As we write this statement, we want to reach out to the Palestinian people to express our solidarity with their struggle for freedom in their own homeland, liberation from colonial oppression and an end to ethnic cleansing. We express our condolences and deep sorrow to the families of victims of this horrifying bloodshed initiated and carried out by Israel.

For more than three weeks the State of Israel has indiscriminately massacred Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Israel historically has been a force at the service of Western and particularly American imperialism, therefore U.S., Canadian and European governments shamelessly provide diplomatic, military and financial backing for these atrocities.

The international community too stands idly while Israel violates international law and continues the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon can only express the institutional timid position: “The people of Gaza have nowhere to run. They are trapped and besieged on a speck of land. Every area is a civilian area…” he announces, but an international action led by the UN is nowhere to be found; the UN shines for its ineffectiveness and lack of real commitment.

The Israeli government has cynically used the kidnapping and killing of three Jewish teenagers in the occupied West Bank in order to launch a devastating attack on the people of Gaza, while no connection to Hamas or Gaza has been established by the Israeli Investigators. The actual reason behind the attack is the outrageous refusal of Israel to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians. This attack is aimed at breaking the recently established unity government between Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in the occupied West Bank and it once again demonstrates that the current Israeli establishment is only interested in continuation of oppression of the Palestinian people.

In the mean time, the bourgeois media has been working hard to justify the genocidal acts of Israel by appealing to Israel’s “right to self-defense”, a right not equally granted to the historically oppressed Palestinian people. This “right”, however, is used by Israel as a justification for bombing hospitals, schools, residential buildings and even UN shelters in Gaza, killing innocent civilians who seek refuge from the carnage. This latest assault is just one more chapter in the mission of the Israeli state to enforce apartheid and complete ethnic cleansing on the Palestinian people. The ruling class in Canada and other Western countries, through its media, has expressed its support for these bloody ambitions. For them, the war on the Palestinians is just another good business opportunity.

By supporting Israel, the Canadian and other Western governments support one of the most backwards and violent elements in the Middle East. Palestinians in the occupied West Bank suffer daily humiliation of military checkpoints on every road, Israeli violation of basic human rights and unaccountable violence. Palestinian workers are exploited by the Israeli bourgeoisie that operates industrial plants on the occupied land, paying the Palestinians extremely low wages and not providing any rights to them. Not only is support given to the State of Israel perpetuating the decades-long brutal oppression of Palestinians, it also deprives most of ordinary people in Israel of peace, security and hope in the better future.

Israel must immediately cease its attacks on the people in Gaza, lift the illegal blockade, stop the apartheid in the occupied West Bank and recognize the right of the Palestinian people for their homeland, from which they are being relentlessly expelled by Israel since 1948.

Stop the massacre of the Palestinian people! Stop the Israeli occupation and oppression!